Improvement in locomotive-engines



ZSheets-Sheetl.

.VL-WELLS. LOGOMOTIVE'ENGINE.

Patented J'an.16,1877.

\' f9.2 Y H35 motive-engine containing my invention.

`ing-wheel with a crank applied thereto.

UNITED STATES APATENT QEEIoEn WALLACE WELLS, OF BROOKLYN, YORK, ASSIGNOR TO WELLS BALANCE ENGINE COMPANY, OF STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROIIEMEN'I' IN LOCOMOTlVE-ENGINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 186,285, dated January 16, 1877; application filed June 22, 1876. r

full, clear, andexact description thereof.

In the drawings, Figure 1, Plate 2, is a side elevation, partly in section, of parts of a loco- Fig. 2, `Plate 2, is a plan, partly in section, of the 'same parts, with the boiler wholly removed. Figs. 1, 2, and 3 of Plate 1 arevertical sections, partly in elevation, of a locomotive driv- Figs. 4.and 5 of `Plate 1 are sketches, showing the position of a cylinder` of an ordinary engine and my improved engine; and Fig. 6 of Plate 1 is an elevation, representing the manner in which I intend sometimes to construct the hub of a driving-wheel. i

My invention consists, chiefly, in combining two double-piston engines with the drivingwheels and axle of a locomotive-engine, in the manner substantially as hereinafter described; and consists, also, in certain subsidiary inventions, as hereafter set forth. y

My invention may be` applied to engines having two, four, or sixin fact, any number of-driving-wheels, and when I say combining engines with the driving-wheels, I mean that pair of driversto which the cranks are attached Y The engines I employ as elements of my combination are double-piston engines-that is, engines having two pistons in the same cylinder, and three piston-rods and three connect- ,n ing-rods, all the piston-rods passing out of the same end of the cylinder, two ot' them being secured to one piston, and one of themthe position of an ordinaryloutside connected cylinder.

vtheir stroke.

inder, A representing the cylinder, B the saddle, and D the framing, while Fig. 4 of the same plate shows the position of the outside connected cylinders in my engine. Observation of the dotted lines c will show the amount of change in position from the old to the new arrangement. These cylinders, as before stated, have each two pistons, three pistonrods, and three connecting-rods, (see Figs. l and 2, Plate 2,) and also proper stuffing-boxes, guides, or slides, brasses, stub-ends, 8vo., and a valve and ports, constructed so as to admit and exhaust the steam properly. I prefer the arrangement of valve and ports shown in the drawings at Fig. 1, Plate 2. In this arrangement the steam and exhaust passage leading from one end of the cylinder is twisted around the exhaust-passage leading to the exhaustpipe, so that the former connects with the steam and exhaust passage from the other end of the cylinder. Both of these steam and exhaust passages connect, therefore, with the same port in the valve-seat, so that when the, lvalve is in the position shown in the figure,

steam may exhaust from both ends of the cylinder through the same port into the valvecup, and when the valve is at the other end of its stroke steam may enter through the same port in the Valve-seat and dow through the passages leading to opposite ends of the cylemploy an ordinary short slide-valve in a double-piston engine.

Although I prefer the short slide-valve,`I wish it to be understood that I intend to use other forms of valve and other arrangements of steam and exhaust passages.`

Each of these engines is combined with the driving-wheels and theiraxle by means of a three-throw crank, arranged outside `of the driving wheels, care being taken that the cranks are so arranged with reference to each other that the pistons of one engine shall be in the center of their stroke, and .in position to do their best work, when the pistons of the other engine are at one end or the other of Or,in other words, the cranks must be so arranged that the pistons of one engine have their cranks on centers, while the In consequence of this peculiar arrangement and connection of passages, I can g leases pistonsl of the other engines have their-cranks in the half-stroke position.

' Various plans ot'attachin g these three-throw ter connecting-rod C of the same weight as both ofthe connecting-rods I) D, Figs. l and 2, Plate l, the connecting-rods of each wheel will balance each other, or the cranks and connecting-rods may be both matie slightly out of balance, provided the error in balance of the one is compensated for bythe error in balance of the other. l prefer to balance the cranks exactly, and also to balance the connecting-rods exactly, as I thus secure not only a balance of weights, but a balanceof momentums ofthe parts; but I wish it to be understood that interior results may be securedI by a construction which will notibalance these parts, and which will necessitate'the usel of counter-balances in the wheel,'such as 'are usually employed. l,

Consideration of this description and the drawings will lead to the following conclusions," viz: that the weights and moinentums of the moving parts may be exactly balanced for each wheel. Thus the connecting-rod of each wheel balance in their :forward and backward and up and down'motions not onlyin weight, but in speed and extent, of their motions. llhe same is true of the cranks of each wheel, and Y`the same of the forward and backward motions of the pistons and piston rods,"provided care is taken thatl one piston'with its tworo'dsl and cross-heads is of the same Weight as the other piston with its single piston-rod' and cross-head. In addition vvto these'resn'lts there will be little or no force exerted to move eitheri end of the axleto or from the engine that is acting on that end, because; when thek single connecting-rod isl trying to drive the axle away from the cylinder, the two connectingrods are striving to pull the axle' toward the cylinder. In ordinary locomotives this effort ofthe engines at times either Ato pull the axle bodilyy to or away fromthe cylinder, and at other times to push one end of the axle'away from its cylinder, while the other endis being pulled toward its cylinder, keeps a lcon stant strain'upon the boxes', increases friction and wear, and is generally considered to be the great source of unsteadines's of locomotives.

It may be further stated thatalllocomotive driving-wheels support'the engine through the` intervention of springs 5 consequently the axles and cranks thereto attached' are constantly moving up and down with reference to the center-line of the cylinder, and the centers of the axles are only momentarily inlinewith the center-line of the cylinder, even :when those center-lines are, in modern fashion, in the horizontal plane which passes through the center of the driving-wheels. In such engines, during their revolutions, both connecting-rods are sometimes tending to move both ends of the shaft' downward, andI at other times one connecting-rod is striving to move y its end ofthe shaft downward, while the'other connecting-rod is striving to move its end ofthe shaft upward. As there are springs, this motion actually takes place, and the boiler` and engine proper are consequently kept in a state of oscillation, owing to the compression and expansion ofthe springs, due to this action of the engine.

My invention remedies this defect, byrea-y son of the fact that the two outside connecting-rods of each engine always tend to throw the 'shaft in exactly the opposite direction to that in which the central connecting-rod tends to shove it.

There is, therefore, in my locomotive no tendency either to contract the springs or to permit them to expand, much less a tendency to contract the springs on one side, while the other is permitted to expand, as is ythe-case in ordinary locomotive-engines.- y The advantages of my invention, therefore, may be summed up as insuring a greater extent of steadiness of motion, as obviating` friction and wear to a certain extent, and, asl a consequence thereof, the-use of less lfuely and steam todo the same work.'.

I havenothitherto spoken of the'connect-y inglinks,'(as at a' .fr ai," Figssl and 2,' Plate;2,) 4which connect one pair of drivers-with other pairs lof drivers'in the sanneV engine.` Each kof 'themv may be counterbalanced veither by weights 'in the drivers or partlyby-aweight infth'ejdrive'r farthest from the engi-ne, and4 partly by adding weight'in the rightplace either to the crankv or the central connectingrod, or both. I` prefer-'to balance half their Weight by the'center-connecting-rods, as I thus, to 'a certain extent, balancetheir Ino-l mentum as well as their weight.-

I intend yto apply my invention to locomotives already built, using the old valve-'gear anddriving-wheels, and, in case of usingthe old driving-wheels, have contrived aplan fory constructing' the crank and attaching ity to the wheels, two modifications of which are represented on Plate `1. In. both these modicatio'ns the three-throw crank has its crankpin nearest the wheel attachedto a wide at plate, e', which extends-from the outside-of the old' crank-pin hole to or 'beyond' the axle of the driver. This plate is, by preference, forged in-on'e piece, with a pin, b, which passes through the `old pin-hole, and is secured-there by a-nut, f, the lit between the pin and hole being a tight one. The other end of this wide plate has either asocket, as in Fig. 1, orfa pin, as ingFig. 2, forged uponl it, and this socket orv pinv is forced, bymeansof a press,

into a recess fitted to receiveit, this recess y being bored out either in the axle or the hub, or partly in both. This construction fastens the crank securely, preventing it from being twisted, as it might be if secured to the lwheel at one point only.

As I intend, when altering old locomotives, that the length of stroke ot' each piston should be about half the length of stroke of the old single-piston engine, the crank-pin a will be nearer the center of the wheel than the old crank-pin.

With new locomotives or new drivers I prefer to make the hubs elliptical, (see Fig. 6, 1 -Plate 1,) to extend the axle outside of the face the drivers, I wish it understood that I intend to use cranks attached or constructed in other ways, so long as they are threethrow, are outside of the drivers, and arranged on the opposite drivers relatively, as before described.

I claim as of my own invention- 1. The combination of two cylinders, each provided with two pistons, and three pistonrods, and three connectingrods, with two driving-wheels and their axle, by means of two three-throw cranks, arranged outside of the drivers, and in such relation to `each other as herein described, the combination being and acting substantially as herein set forth.

r 2. In combination with a short slide-valve and two pistons in one` cylinder, the construction 'of passages and ports, as described, whereby an ordinary short slide-valve acts to admit and exhaust steam properly in a double-piston engine.

3. The construction, substantially as herein described, whereby a three-throw crank is attached to the face of a driving-wheel, the distinguishing peculiarity ef said construction being that the crank-pin nearest the wheel is secured to a plate which is secured at both ends to the driving-wheel, substantially as herein set forth.

' WALLACE WELLS. In the presence of G. A. SEWARD, THos. F. KRAJEWSKI, 

